ABSTRACT
A number of surveys point to a high incidence of marital difficulties or breakdown in some families and the adverse effects on siblings. Some studies point to the unrealistic expectations which parents have of the healthy child to compensate for their disappointment or feelings of failure in relation to the child who is handicapped. Describing the reactions of parents to the birth of a defective child, Solnit and Stark speak of the mother's mourning reaction, She has to relinquish the image of an expected "perfect baby," and has to adapt to the "sudden" birth of a threatening handicapped child. In a paper written in 1979, Trevino discusses siblings of mentally retarded children. He observed that, initially, young children play with their disabled siblings on an equal basis. As they grow older, they have to redefine their role and begin to assume a superordinate position. Parental ambivalence toward the handicapped child who is often defensively overprotected and overindulged intensifies sibling rivalry.
